The Best Info Comes from Within You, Not from “Out There”
/How many hours have you spent researching the “best” way to solve the “problem” with your body?
All the time spent trying to find the “best” diet or workout plan to lose weight. Or the “right” protocol to follow in order to feel better.
The mind wants to know. It wants the answer. It likes prescriptions, plans, and protocols to follow. And there’s no shortage of people telling you they have the answer for you!
When you’re feeling scared, insecure, or in pain, you’ll do whatever you think is necessary to feel better.
But what if you didn’t have to search out there in order to find relief?
What if you could connect to a source of peace, okayness, and guidance that exists right now within you?
This source of guidance I call Inner Wisdom. You’ve felt its guidance before - often in the form of a hunch, a “knowing”, or an intuition. Its direction is clear, confident, and is always for your highest good.
We just tend not to hear this guidance because we’re caught up in our thinking mind. The mind that is programmed with all the ideas from our family, friends, and the culture-at-large.
Inner Wisdom gets drowned out by a very fearful mind that is loud, demanding, and often critical. And because it’s so loud and is telling you it knows best (“if you don’t control your eating you’ll gain a millions pounds and die tomorrow ahhhhhhh!”), you listen to it (understandably!)
But listening to the fearful mind is tiring. It has you running in circles. Always working, always worrying, and often taking you further away from the well-being that you actually are.
So how do you start listening more to your Inner Wisdom rather than the fearful mind? Here are a few recommendations:
Meditate: the whole point of meditation is to help separate your awareness from the thinking mind so you can become more aware of your Inner Wisdom. Meditating consistently (5-10 minutes every day), can help you develop the ability to disengage from the mind so you can feel your Inner Wisdom. If you’re new to meditation or find it a challenge to do on your own, following a guided meditation can help. You can join my Free Weekly Guided Meditation group where I lead a live 10-min guided meditation, and then send out the recording afterwards so you can follow it on your own time.
Notice What Feels More Peaceful: Inner Wisdom comes from a place of clarity and peace. It doesn’t feel frantic, worried or scared. Inner Wisdom knows you are OK, worthy, and well, so it’s going to guide you from that understanding. So when it comes to wondering what you “should” do about something, take a moment and get quiet and feel into what the next best step is in the moment. Inner Wisdom always guides us in the here and now cause that’s the only place we can ever live from.
Ask yourself “If I wasn’t afraid of being judged, what feels right to me?” So many of our decisions are made from a place of what others will think of us. I just started reading the book “Courage Is Calling” by Ryan Holiday. He shares the story of Florence Nightingale. Florence felt a calling to be of service in hospitals, but for 16 years ignored it because she was afraid of upsetting her family and being judged by society (Florence was an aristocrat, and doing this service was seen as “unbecoming”). But eventually the discrepancy between living an authentic life vs. living life to appease others' became too great, and she chose to follow her calling (while still hard, ultimately “felt better).
We are all born with this inner guidance that helps direct us through this life so we can grow and live fully. But Inner Wisdom doesn’t care about society and its body expectations, or what the latest diet trend is. It cares about what it sees is truly best for you and your body right here right now. And when you follow that, well-being will be your state, rather than something you’re seeking.
Understanding Your Thinking is a webinar I created to help you differentiate more clearly between the thinking mind, and your inner wisdom. Check it out here.
Photo by Designecologist